Monday Jan. 12, 12:31 p.m.

Well, sure enough, the news this mornng showed a few of those malcontents crashing Adulthood Day ceremonies in Okinawa and Miyagi Prefectures. Although those punks did steam me, I also realized that there are a whole lot more ceremonies going on around the country which were probably a lot more peaceful if boring, and perhaps in a few rare cases, even truly inspirational (oops...I caught a whiff of optimism there...gotta check that).

Forgot to mention that the Ballerina called all the way from London last night and left a greeting. She stated that she tried to reach Movie Buddy on his cell but he wasn't picking up. I recollected that he once said the Ballerina was just a bit too dependent on him (she's had a major crush on him) and that he would refrain from talking to her for a while. And especially with Saturday night's events, I don't think it would help matters having any mention of the Ballerina into their relationship.

I borrowed The Two Towers Special Edition DVDs and the second season of 24 from Chip Guy. Looks like I'll be busy today but I've got some housework to do. Plus, I've got to devour the Iconoclast's BBQ pork that he so kindly brought back from HK for me.

Monday Jan. 12, 12:55 a.m.

Well, another Adulthood Day is here..the time when the new 20-year-olds dress up in their kimonos and suits, drink LEGALLY for once and heckle the mayor during the usually boring speech that he makes to the so-called mature adults. As you might imagine, I take a dim view of any day that celebrates a set border between adolescence and adulthood. Plenty of immature adults well into their 20s and 30s out there.

Luckily, the past evening was a much more serene and pleasant experience than that logistical and emotional fiasco of Saturday night. I made my first pilgrimage to Chip Guy's house this year, and enjoyed his company along with that of his wife and kid. The only source of caterwauling just came from Chip Guy's daughter and THAT I could understand.

Over dessert, I watched one of those "Only In Japan" variety shows. I think this program belonged solidly more in the National Geographic channel than the Food Network. It was about a few celebs who dared to enter unknown lands and find out what some of the natives were eating. Among the "delicacies" were: mosquito patties stewed in cow urine, sauteed termite queens and deep-fried spiders. Chip's wife was marveling at how I could keep on munching chocolates while watching this program. Hmph...I can distinguish between the two things!

Sunday Jan. 11, 1:33 a.m.

Well, it was one for the entertainment books tonight. It certainly made me wonder whether I should have even bothered lingering around Shinjuku for 6 hours before meeting up with Movie Buddy and the bunch. First of all, our trip to Shidax, our first choice for karaoke, was short-circuited by one of those young hucksters hawking half-price karaoke around the corner in Kabukicho. I was pretty suspicious to begin with, but MB got hooked by the promise of all-you-can-drink.

As it turned out, the place we went to was no better than the really cheap karaoke box with the dingy walls and the torn-up seats. The karaoke system was slow in responding and had this weird gimmick of being in random selection mode so that we could never find out when we would be singing. Plus, the drinks and food (miniscule and mediocre) were late in coming and some of the orders were never processed. But the worst part of it was that it looked like MB and his girlfriend had been in the middle of a lovers' spat even before tonight's event, and it boiled over in the middle of the session. While some of us were singing, MB and his girl decided to continue their argument in the room itself until MB suddenly stormed out with his girl following. He came back all pouty for a little bit but it looked like the two had patched things up...initially. Finally, when we were on our way back to the station, I was walking beside them when the girlfriend decided that she would give him the cold shoulder with him trying to catch up and make up. I'd had enough and just left them alone...easy enough to do in the usual tumultuous crowd which always clogged the area around the ticket machines and gates. One thing I hate is getting into the middle of a crossfire, especially between two lovers. Mind you, the whole thing reminded me of some of the dicier moments between me and my ex, albeit it was in more private situations. However, I have blown up in the past in public places, so I can sympathize to a certain extent with MB.

As it is, though, I could've avoided all this and just stayed home with a good meal. Ah well, these things do happen from time to time. I just hope that my meeting with Chip Guy goes a lot better.

And as a further conclusion, witnessing all of this ugliness illustrated to me that I'm happier being single again.

Friday Jan. 9, 11:07 p.m.

Always nice to take a shower after a day of eating very spicy food. I went down to Roppongi as scheduled and went to First Kitchen, one of the local fast food restaurants, to meet that acquaintance of mine. I had a chili dog set which added the first aromas to my clothing. We shifted the venue over to the family restaurant, Janathans, across the street. It seems like there was a reason that he wanted to change places. He's a macrobiotic type of fellow so nothing on the First Kitchen menu would ever be chosen by him. He just uses the place as a study hall, much to the staff's chagrin.

Afterwards, I went up to the Iconoclast's company and met up with his boss' nephew. Unlike in my first report, his nephew turned out to be a pretty decent fellow. He asked me a lot of questions about living in Canada which I was happy to answer, and we continued our conversation over to dinner at a tiny yakitori place in East Shinjuku. Of course, the smells of the dishes there managed to permeate my clothing. I was broiling in my own juices with the extra layers on, but as it turned out, my decision was a good one. It was cold walking back home but the layers kept most of it out.

Well, gotta make the plans for the kids.

Friday Jan. 9, 11:14 a.m.

It may be -20 before the wind chill in Toronto but it was still plenty cold here in Tokyo despite it being 22 degrees warmer. I can thank the lack of central heating for that. Luckily, I've had a 10-year-old ceramic heater that's still working. The wonders of Japanese durability.

The salarymen are crying the blues here. Not because of the economy which is actually showing a rise, but because of the ban on beef imports from the US and probably Canada. We have a very popular restaurant among the salaried types here called Yoshinoya whose fare du guerre is GYUDON or beef on rice in a bowl. In fact, there are other similar chains as well but Yoshinoya is the representative restaurant. Salarymen love to go there during lunch or even dinner since the dish comes out hot, quick and cheap. With the restrictions on beef, Japan will deplete its American beef supplies by March which means that all of the gyudon restaurants will have to drastically change the menu. Substitutes include salmon roe, chicken or other stuff on the rice. Some of those salarymen when interviewed cited a lot of regret if that were to happen.

Well, today, I'll be headed out to meet a couple of folks. One is a guy who I only met once or twice back in Toronto several years ago. For some reason, he's tried to maintain contact with me over the years by e-mail, so we've finally decided to meet in Roppongi for a bit of tea. Then, I head back up to Shinjuku to meet The Iconoclast and his boss' nephew. It seems the nephew wants to head off to Canada to study something. His English is not too hot, and since The Iconoclast's Japanese is minimal, I'm being brought in again as intermediary. Oh, man...I just hope he's not one of these young punks with an attitude.

I may have another get-together in the works. One of the Tea Room girls contacted me for the first time in several weeks since our disbanding to see if we were up for a New Year's party. Then, another one of my school's alumni who actually has her current job thanks to that aforementioned Tea Room lady contacted me for pretty much the same thing. Hmmm...after that Xmas fiasco, I'm wondering if I should let one of them do the planning.

My weekend will be spent with my closest friends. I've got my first class with the kids tomorrow, but then I'll be meeting up with Movie Buddy and his friend from Oz for a goodbye dinner before Oz takes off for home. Then, I'll be meeting up with Chip Guy and the family on Sunday for dinner with him.

Wednesday Jan. 7, 11:17 p.m.

I felt pretty worn out and limp by the time I returned home tonight. I think one factor in that was my fashion overreaction. Again, I judged the weather outside by how cold it felt inside in my pyjamas, so I threw on the scarf, the gloves and the longjohns. Of course, the temperature today was 7 degrees...cold by Tokyo standards, but for a supposedly coldproofed Canadian like myself, I should've just laughed it off. Instead I lugged all of this stuff on my person like a portable sauna. Without getting into too fine detail, I resorted to peeling off my longjohns. My legs will probably be the envy of a lot of young ladies right now.

I ended up getting a 1000 yen pass since I had quite a few stops today which involved paying bills, doing some shopping and then teaching my two classes. The two of them went by fairly smoothly. But they will end up being the only two classes of my work week, aside from my kids on Saturday morning, since my new class on Thursday nights cancelled out and we've got that Adulthood Day on Monday.

That Starbucks card I got from my Wednesday nighter has been a godsend. No reaching for bills and change for my lattes and cinnamon rolls. Just a swipe and the staff person takes care of that aspect of manual labor.

I gave my afternoon student a bit of a scare when I admitted my past as a former otaku. I had to reassure that I no longer go nuts when it comes to purchases of music CDs and any anime purchases are a thing of the past.

The Iconoclast has returned from his vacation in HK with a nice slab of BBQ pork for me. Now all I have to do is try to secure it sometime this weekend.

Well, now that I have nothing tomorrow, I can just sleep in and just get a few errands done.

Tuesday Jan. 6, 11:55 p.m.

Another smooth night in front of the students, although that one student is once again making some groans about having to work with a less-advanced book. Well, I did offer that she could start a private class with me since I will be teaching 2 Thursdays a month from this week. However, my boss told me that the student had related to her that she is loathe to do that since it would be too expensive. Well, if she wants to paint herself into a corner with her own brush, that's her business.

I still received a few more New Year's cards today, one from a surprise source, The Joker. After a silence of several years, he, or his wife actually, sent over a card. Well, I tried to find some remaining New Year's cards at the convenience store but it looks like the season is now officially over; I couldn't find a single one. I think it's a bit chintzy, but I decided to send The Joker and the two other parties e-mail cards instead. The other ones came from that family whose kids I teach on Saturdays and a couple of former students who had become a married item a couple of years ago. They just opened up a flower shop of their own; it should look very nice since the husband is a former set designer. I must admit that the address of the place is intriguing. Although it was written in the katakana syllabary, I swear it reads as "Phil Collins Musashino". I wonder if the building itself is called "Genesis".

I also received a phone message from the Ballerina. It sounded rather final so I gather that I won't be meeting her at the school after all. I am a bit disappointed by that but at least it saves me an extra leg on my journey and I can get at least one more hour of sleep. Speaking of the school, I guess the staff is pretty desperate in trying to find teachers. I have told the folks there repeatedly that I cannot work on Fridays, and yet they sent me a fax asking if I would be willing to teach at the Funabashi City Hall on Thursdays and Fridays for the next several weeks. For one thing, I said that I would only teach the in-house classes at the school, and for the second thing, when I taught there last year, the organization and the materials for the class were so lame. Nice students, though, so I was rather ashamed about teaching that crap to them.

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 11:48 a.m.

Got a good 10 hours of sleep today. One thing about these holidays, I'm very happy for the down time. I also heard the garbage guys come by for the first time in over a week. Looking at the pile that was there last night, it looks like they are going to be needing the Ben-Gay tonight.

Well, that was indeed a computer worm which attacked me yesterday. But damage was minimal. It tried to make another attack today but luckily I was able to filter it out now that I knew what I was looking for.

I received a bit more traffic of real e-mail as well. Chip Guy is back in town so I'm looking forward to dinner with him this weekend. GC and another old friend got back in touch as well, so I was able to have somewhat mroe meaningful exchanges other than the usual one-line responses.

Well, I've gotta get prepped for my three classes tonight.

Mon. Jan. 5, 9:36 p.m.

Well, I know that the Holidays are truly over when regular civic services are back online. I had a couple of bags of burnable garbage just hanging around my kitchen for a week until I finally could dump them outside. No problems with smell, though, thanks to the fact that I have no central heating.

Heading out to Tokyo wasn't too bad. I made a stopover in Akihabara today to pick up one last calendar for the Anime King. I must admit that it felt rather weird being in the anime emporium, GAMERS, surrounded by folks who could become my surrogate children. But I was able to find a calendar which should keep the King happy. A lot of people milling through the electronics district.

The class tonight went by pretty smoothly. I got the impression on the way back to Shinjuku Station, though, that there was still a period of transition going on between the Holidays and the regular work week. Not too many people walking outside of the huge hotels in the West Shinjuku district.

The weather has gotten noticeably colder again after a balmy New Year's week. I wonder if there will be a repeat of that fateful Adulthood Day several years back when the kimonoed and suited 20-year-olds got socked by a major snowstorm in Tokyo.

Looks like the BBS traffic has been burning up a streak on the J-Pop forums about the Morning Musume graduations and the Kohaku Utagassen. If I were ten years younger, I probably would jump in instead of being a harmless lurker but considering that a lot of messages have the words "Mom" and "Dad" in them, I would feel somewhat sleazy doing so. I am impressed, though, at the origins of some of those messages: New York, Louisiana, Texas.

Monday Jan. 5, 9:14 a.m.

Well, the first work day of the new year is getting off to an unsurprisingly rocky start. For some reason, my eyes flicked open at 4:30 a.m. so that I only netted four hours of sleep. Plus, my coffee urn decided to vomit its hot contents all over me when I pushed down the plunger, and then some goof decided to send me a potential computer virus under the administration of my server. And now I find out that my application to get a birth certificate to get a new passport will take about 14 weeks MINIMUM. Good grief!

Looks like there have been idol bombshells on both sides of the Pacific. Britney gets married under alcohol, but she will get that annulled. Over here, the fans of the Morning Musume supergroup are reeling on hearing that two of the more popular members, Ai and Nozomi, will be "graduating" from the group in the summer. The otakus are probably crying in their Hello Kitty mugs of beer.

Well, when a day like today starts like it has, I'm just gonna get me a rubdown at my massage clinic, and then enjoy a nice lunch before prepping for my lesson tonight. Luckily, I already set the groundwork last night.

Sunday Jan. 4, 9:49 p.m.

The official New Year's holidays will be finishing as of tonight, although I'm sure that there will probably be New Year's parties all throughout the month. I think this country is the only one in the G-8 that has 2 different sets of major parties with just one week in between. I did my weekly budgetary calculations, and they illustrated how quiet my week was. My total weekly expenditures were a fair bit smaller than the previous week's expenditures on food alone. That certainly is a big relief for me considering that I didn't make any income over the past 2 weeks.

My e-mail traffic, the real stuff anyways, has been paltry. Basically, all I've been doing is sweeping out the spam aside from one or two letters.

But I'll be back at work from Monday. However, I just have that one night class so I guess my holidays will still be extended for a little bit longer. No complaints from this end.

The Ballerina contacted me by phone today asking me if I am available on Wednesday. A couple of old alumni are popping by the school just before she takes off for jolly ol' England later that day.

I actually caught a good portion of that French movie "Amelie" that was all the rage a couple of years ago on TV this morning. I decided to watch it in its original French; I was never a huge dubbing fan although I was able to endure it as a child when I watched those Godzilla movies back in Canada. What can I say? It's perky and typically off-kilter for a French comedy. Mind you, "Amelie" is the first French comedy I've ever seen.

Well, time to prepare for the lessons.

Saturday Jan. 3, 12:51 a.m.

I made my way down to Shibuya to meet up with my friend from Sendai. Even on the 2nd of January, Shibuya was still fully packed with people...it was more like a regular Sunday than a New Year's holiday. It was even more strange considering that a good number of stores were still closed. After a short visit to Towers we first checked out our first choice of Uoza no Itcho but it looks like they had decided to stay closed. So after a short respite at a Doutor coffee shop for 30 minutes, we were able to get into our second choice of En. We just spent the next five hours gabbing and eating fine food. As usual, we got into a couple of debates involving East Asian politics and the like but all in all, it went quite well

Well, I'm going to return to my cocooning for the weekend until I'm back on duty as of Monday.

Thurs. January 1, 2004, 11:14 p.m.

A Happy New Year! Although I think for me, it'll be an uncertain one.
The past 48 hours have been spent in my apartment. I only stepped out just to go down to the first floor to pick up my New Year's Cards today. Quite a difference from the nightly outings last week.

New Year's Eve was just spent at home watching the countdown to midnight and, of course, being in Japan, catching the Red and White Song Festival on NHK. I think it's the first time in a few years since I've seen the festival from beginning to end. As it was, it wasn't too bad although it was still a little grating listening to some of the contrived dialogue, especially since many of the younger acts talk very frankly usually. Then, just before the stroke of midnight, GC gave me a surprise phone call while I was making the toshikoshi noodles to commemorate the passing of the year. I should be getting a phone call from the parentals sometime tomorrow morning.

For today, it was another first for me. It was the first time in several years I didn't even bother to set one metre outside of my apartment building. I would have even stayed within the confines of my apartment itself if I hadn't decided to step out to pick up the cards. I just fed myself on the remaining noodles and leftovers from last night's dinner. Most families on New Year's Day feast on OSECHI which consists of lacquered platters filled with special New Year's foods. It's OK to eat but I don't particularly miss not having it. Basically, my day was spent just taping specials for the parents.

However, the streak of cocooning will be broken tomorrow since I'll be meeting up with a friend of mine for dinner. Well, at least, I did save money over these past three days.

The past year wasn't exactly an Annus Horribilis as certain members of royalty are prone to have but I can't really say that it's been a banner one for me either. I can say that it was one of transition and sobriety. I went from being a full-time teacher for a management that I couldn't really trust to a freer part-time teacher. I can't believe it's almost a year since I made the decision to cut most of my ties with my school. The new situation for me has had its ups and downs but generally it's been a good move for me since I've had to be more diligent on the finances. The big test will come in a couple of weeks when I go into City Hall to declare my income taxes. Also, I lost my girlfriend of 18 months; now that probably won't mean too much to the lot of you but for a guy my age who had never had a girlfriend before, it has a bit more significance for me. I've also seen my circle of friends grow smaller. Someone said that as one ages one's circle shrinks but gets tighter. That may be so, but I am going to lose a very good friend, Chip Man, and his family back to Canada. Plus, I'm rather wondering about how close I should be with my current and future students; frankly, from the events of this past year, I have pondered about the merits of showing too much of myself to clients. I might become more solitary this year but perhaps that might be more my style anyways.

I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions this year and I think I will stop that rather useless habit of navel-gazing since I really don't have faith in much of anything anymore. I'm just going to take things one day at a time. Perhaps this will reveal me as somewhat of a grumpy cynic but, hey, as I commemorate my 10th year in this country, I gotta be me.

Tuesday Dec. 30, 11:19 p.m.

I partially finished Stage 2 of the big cleanup today. This time, it was my bedroom. Nothing as strenuous as yesterday's mopdown of the living room. Basically, all it entailed was some vacuuming and dusting. However, I've got some finishing touches and then I can finish everything off by taking care of the bathroom and kitchen.

Well, I had actually flirted with the thought of heading onemore time to the Farm Grill for its penultimate night for dinner, but considering the work at hand here, I decided to let the idea go. I won't be going anywhere for New Year's Eve so that will be it for my relationship with the Grill. To make up for it, I bought a small roast chicken for dinner with some minestrone as a side dish.

I took a bit of a walk down memory lane tonight watching a special version of an old music program that has been off the air for over a decade. The Best 10 was my very first valued source for J-Pop, and it was interesting seeing these old singers come out one more time. It reflected a somewhat more innocent and perhaps even more quintessentially Japanese time in terms of pop music. The songs back then were cottony-soft puffy examples of formulaic pap but they certainly couldn't be said to resemble anything America had at the time. Nowadays, J-Pop is basically metamorphosing into clones of hip-hop, rap and soul.

Well, tomorrow, I finish off my apartment cleaning and then I will get some food. I should be giving my VCR a good workout since I'll be taping stuff for the parentals. At least, I don't have to tape the annual NHK Red and White Program since they now have a satellite link to the channel from Toronto. I've already started the taping tonight.

Monday Dec. 29, 10:00 p.m.

I started Stage One of the big year-end cleanup today...part of the Japanese ritual to get the home all spic and span so that one can start the New Year on a fresh note. I just worked on wiping down the living room: sweeping away all of the accumulated dust, mopping the tatami and washing the curtains. And I also got rid of a large majority of video tapes: two bags full. My place will never be considered spacious but it currently looks a little less scruffier now. I also managed to find my YOU DON'T KNOW JACK discs after a number of years; they were lingering in a nest of dust under the video tape shelving. Tomorrow, I start on the bathroom and kitchen, and then hopefully everything will end with the bedroom on New Year's Eve.

This is the first day in over a week that I've been able to stay at home all day. It is nice to save a bit of money although I did splurge a bit on making the first minestrone of the season. I'm hoping it will last me a couple of days.

Last night, I visited my friend, Mayflower, who is currently staying with at his sister's house. He seemed to have been in a slightly chippy mood last night. He gave me a slight chastising for slurping my spaghetti; I hadn't even noticed that I did so. Perhaps he was a bit ticked off at me for not bringing a second course (despite the fact that I'd brought a bottle of wine and a box of cake). All we had was spaghetti and meat sauce. Luckily, instinct had told me to grab a hamburger set from McDonalds across from the station. It's also possible...natch, probable...that his mood may have stemmed from his meeting with a couple of former friends of mind earlier that afternoon. Several years earlier, I had decided to break off my friendship with the Joker and his wife and all those around him because I just felt I didn't belong to that group. I had always felt like the odd wheel out in a parking lot of cars, so one day I decided to not accept any more invitations from them. Mayflower showed me some digital pics of the Joker and his now enlarged family. He certainly has expanded a bit in the seven years since I had last seen him; he used to be one cool toothpick in black, but I guess domestication has mellowed him out. The picture I saw had him look several kilos heavier and wearing soft gray, but his Cheshire grin was still as brilliant as ever. I could imagine what the Joker must have told Mayflower about me, but at this point in my life, I don't really care anymore. I mean, pangs of regret hit me from time to time but I figure I'm much more of a loner now.

Sunday Dec. 28, 12:22 a.m.

Well, I've got another party under my belt. The Ballerina's farewell went off without a hitch, although there were still some switches in the cast of characters. Two pulled out so another couple of students came in their place, The Nurse and The Maid. Basically, it was them plus The Ballerina, Movie Buddy and myself plus another former student. I was happy to see that the Ballerina went out of her way to teetotal despite a bit of ribbing from Movie Buddy. The first party took place at a chicken-themed restaurant in the heart of East Shinjuku. We had a hot pot to cook up veggies and chicken, just the perfect dish for a cold day like today.

Then, sure enough, we all headed out afterwards for karaoke a few blocks up north to the SHIDAX chain. MB was quite impressed at how the karaoke discs there used the actual backing tracks from the original songs; he'll definitely be coming back to that place. It was interesting noticing the interpersonal dynamics during our two hours there. There was a bit of chit-chat amongst the students but otherwise it was basically a listening session for everyone. The Nurse, who's just about as genki as Ms. Genki, was oddly subdued for a majority of the session for some reason. At first, I thought it a bit of a problem when I realized that because I am a teacher, I should maintaining some sort of distance in any case.

Aside from the occasional purchases of milk or breakfast juice, I probably won't need to buy any other things for breakfast for the next several days since I've received packages of confectionaries. That ought to help some with the finances, but I think this week will be a total write-off in terms of saving.

Sat. Dec. 27, 1:11 p.m.

Tokyo finally got the frosting on the wacky weather cake for this year. I woke up to see all of the roofs in my neighbourhood...and some of my formerly dry laundry..covered in snow. Not that it's gonna stay there long...it's pretty sunny today. Kinda nice to stay indoors, though I will be taking off for my umpteenth get-together this week in a few hours.

I've just spent the last few hours perusing the new Pet Shop Boys' DVD of videos, and one of them was "Heart". I took a look at the vampire in that video and I thought that guy looked awfully familiar. Well, I made my guess and then had it confirmed on the official website of the boys. It was none other than Magneto himself...Sir Ian McKellen.

Saturday Dec. 27, 12:38 a.m.

Boxing Day was another day out, this time with Movie Buddy and his buddy from Oz. We went to the Farm Grill for...possibly...the last time. I say possibly since I may still try for one more last supper since the lunch is so inferior. Because of the meal from Xmas night, I wasn't too hungry for a second round which surprised MB.

Then, we three went back to my place. Luckily, I was able to clean the place down earlier this morning. There we caught a couple of DVDs, both of which didn't make much of a splash at the box office, but they were at opposite ends of the scale in terms of quality.

The bad one was EQUILIBRIUM (or as it's known here, REBELLION), starring the hard luck actor, Christian Bale. Man, this guy's career is just like his very first role in Spielberg's EMPIRE OF TH E SUN as the WWII POW kid....it manages to survive but it's gone through a lot of hell. The movie is about this future society in which all emotion is banned and Bale plays the best of this SS-like elite corps of "clerics" which eradicates all those guilty of sense crime. However, he misses out on one injection of this mandatory drug which suppresses his emotions and discovers the error of his ways, thus plowing the way for him to become the head of this underground organization devoted to overthrow the totalitarian government. As you can imagine, the movie draws from 1984, Gattaca and, because of this future martial art called GUN-KATA, the Matrix as well. The three of us could see why this movie got quickly shoved to the video shelves; there are tons of plot holes, most notably that Christian Bale and his rival, Taye Diggs, certainly show quite a bit of emotion for a couple of fascists dedicated on maintenance of non-emotion. And the GUN-KATA quickly becomes a laughfest. As MB's buddy put it, there was a kernel of a good idea in the story, but it got overlayered with dross. The real surprise was seeing Sean Bean in yet another cameo as cannon fodder. It would actually be kinda nice to see him live to the end of a picture. The other odd thing is how similar Bale sounds to Keanu Reeves.

Well, after that unintentional laugher, we caught a little spy movie called COMPANY MAN. True to the twists and turns in the plot, the stars refer to the movie as such, but the opening credits say "CYPHER". However, that cute little bit of pretension aside, the movie does play like a quality piece of espionage moviemaking. The usual conventions of cross and double cross, femme fatale, and "nothing is as it seems" apply here but the performances and the overall execution make this a winner. Jeremy Northam is great as the initial nebbish who evolves over the course of the flick, while Lucy Liu, as his mysterious confidante, is refreshing by not playing the usual Dragon Lady from Ally McBeal or Kill Bill or even the kick-butt Angel. However, some of her scenes in COMPANY MAN will make comparisons to the latter character inevitable. An interesting movie worthy of attention.

After our double feature, we spent a half-hour looking at my DVD of Pet Shop Boys videos from the past. Interesting and so 80s.

We went back into town again to meet up with Ms. Genki in Roppongi Hills, really just to look at the illuminated trees. As I was walking up the grand avenue, I was thinking why there was any need for me to come down here since Ms. Genki had already eaten a bit of dinner beforehand and the rest of us were still full from the Grill. However, we did manage to salvage some worth from the trip by doing some extensive browsing through the Aoyama Book Centre and giving MB's buddy a quick tour of the original, seedier Roppongi before the trendy and shiny Roppongi Hills burst onto the scene back in May. Tons of people were lining the streets. Foreign touts were flashing pics of women trying to entice men to come into establishments, and a lot of groups of salarymen were traipsing around finding their venue for drinking. Plus, there were also quite a few ladies in their finery; they could've been gussied-up OLs or "professionals".

In any case, we ended up drinking up at the local Excelsior Cafe. I was getting a bit hungry, so I tucked into a heated pastrami and cheese sandwich with a maple latte. And then, we all went our separate ways.

Looks like my wish will not come true fo r Sunday. My Canadian friend, whom I met on Monday, has invited me to his brother-in-law's house near Shinjuku for spaghetti dinner. Well, at least it's at someone's home and not at another pricey restaurant. I will definitely have to make sure that I stay completely free for the last few days of the year to save on money and just to relax a bit. However, I think that may not quite be possible since yet another old friend contacted me a couple of days ago saying that he'd like to meet up with me when he gets back into Tokyo.

Thurs. Dec. 25, 11:15 p.m.

It's been a rather ho-hum Xmas for me. Xmas may be well entrenched in this country via all the lights, glitter and parties, but the real atmosphere is still missing. It just doesn't compare to home with all the silence and the smells of roasting turkey. It also didn't help that I was still suffering from those cold sores in my mouth and the head & neck aches.

However, there was a bit of Xmas cheer via the annual Charlie Brown Xmas show on the Cartoon Network. From the first plunkings of Vince Guaraldi's wonderful score to the entire cast singing "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!", the show is one of my cherished memories of Xmas past, and probably has more Xmas in it than a whole bunch of department store displays in the Ginza.

I did go to ROTI as scheduled, in my dress blues, no less. I was seated by the bar where I tucked into the various courses of food. Everything was very good, especially the appetizer of Lobster Risotto. However, I had a tough time getting through the salad since the balsamic dressing was searing the cold sores on my tongue. The main course of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes was fine but I thought there had been more salad than there was of the main stuff. Dessert was fine. Financially, it did send me back quite a bit...let's say that from a 10,000 yen bill, I only got some jingles back as change. But it was Xmas, and I'm aiming to get back to Canada next year for Xmas. There's nothing like Mom's cooking after all. Plus, the fact that I was alone also detracted from the dining experience; it sure would have been nice if I'd had some company.

I checked out Roppongi Hills nearby. The place was swarming with people tonight with cameras and lots of money, I'm sure, for the restaruants inside. Then, taking the long way home so that I was ensured of a seat, the other thing that told me that this wasn't really a Xmas Day here was the fact that people were still commuting home from a long day at the office as if it were a regular day. Back home, I'd be surprised if I actually ran into someone after walking a kilometre; heck, I'd be surprised if I actually ventured outside my home on Xmas Day.

Well, I did get a nice bit of rest on the trains, and strangely enough, my pains seem to have gone although I still feel a bit of electricity from my tongue. I still have to get some cleaning done in the apartment since I'll be entertaining Movie Buddy and his friend tomorrow here for a few hours. We'll be heading to the Farm Grill for the final time for lunch beforehand, and then we'll be heading back to Roppongi to join Ms. Genki to check out the illumination at Roppongi Hills. It'll probably be the first time that I have gone to the area on consecutive nights.

And then on Saturday, I'll be officially taking over for the Madam in the Ballerina's farewell party. Certainly, the guest list will be easier to handle since along with the Madam, three people have dropped out. However, a couple of other students have called in to ask if they can join in after the first party. Methinks that we'll be going to karaoke again. I'll have to keep an eye out on the Ballerina so she doesn't imbibe too much again.

Thurs. Dec. 25, 1:41 a.m.

Well, Xmas has arrived for us on this side of the Pacific. Last night, we had the various cake shops putting out staff in their Santa Claus outfits hawking their version of Xmas cake. As for me, I did a bit more shopping before heading out to Nakano to partake in the Xmas Eve party partly planned by Movie Buddy and our mutual friend, Ms. Genki. There were about 10 people in the group which included MB's buddy from Oz, and both MB's current and former girlfriends. Everyone had a lot of fun at the party and the food was great. From the gift exchange, I managed to get some Starbucks coffee grounds and some chocolate biscuits which may come in handy when MB and his buddy come over here to watch a DVD on Boxing Day. My dinner companion to the left was certainly very lively after several beers, and then she had the energy to order a whole lot of alcohol just before last call. Fortunately, some of us decided to leave at that point.

Later today, I will have to some major cleanup here for my Boxing Day guests before heading out to my now-solo Xmas dinner in Roppongi. Speaking of which, the Madam contacted me again saying that she will not be able to handle the farewell party for the Ballerina on Saturday because of her grandmother's illness. She's left the onus on me.